Zap's Wrap May 18th

hi friends,

Last week was a big one!! Here's the quick version:

• Oversubscribed my 7th SPV and already know who my 8th will be (: Spending this week putting the deal together.

• Flew to NYC to meet a bunch of preseed investors. Went in with imposter syndrome, left with newfound clarity.

• Got to spend time with Grace and the Elysian team. Cheering them on hard!

• Turned 30. Celebrated with friends! Booked a trip to Budapest and Istanbul. (recs welcome.)

Now the longer version…

SPV #7 is wrapped. #8 is already in motion.

I've now written a personal check into 27 startups. And my favorite deals, easily, are the ones where the founder had no revenue, maybe no product, and I could actually roll up my sleeves and help.

Then I get to watch. Those same companies go from $0 in revenue to millions. From two people to dozens.

And when the time is right, I get to run an SPV into them.

That's what I love most about this model. I don't just get to invest- I get to share it. I get to say "I've been watching this one for a while, and now it's time."

I wrote about crossing my first $1M in AUM and everything I've learned along the way.

What NYC taught me about myself.

I flew to New York to meet a bunch of preseed investors. Honestly, I went in with a lot of imposter syndrome and I left with clarity. Three things stuck with me:

1. I have an edge. Sitting in those rooms, I realized something I hadn't fully let myself believe before. I have a mission that is specific and true- Nashville. I have The Lighthouse and a community of founders I am genuinely embedded in. I can help with hiring. I can help with fundraising. I have an audience. All of those things compound into a right to win that isn't available to someone who just has capital.

2. I was never meant for New York. I lived there for less than six months after college. Got fired. Left. Moved back to Iowa to live with my parents for a bit, then found Nashville. For years I carried that as a flaw, like I wasn't strong enough to hang, like I'd failed some test everyone else passed. Sitting there last week, I felt sad that I believed that for so long. The truth is simpler: I was meant for Nashville. For a city that is still becoming. For a place where I could build something and have it matter.

3. Venture is changing. I sat in a room full of VCs and felt different from some and very similar to others. It got me thinking about where the industry is actually going- away from institutions having all the power and toward individuals with a genuine right to win. The future looks like giant movie studios and thousands of YouTubers, with very little left in the middle. I wrote about my thoughts here. 

Events

• Engineers Meet Nashville Startups, Tuesday May 19th @ 5:30pm

  • We have a spectacular line up of startups presenting:

  • ​Tristan Wilson, CEO at Edgevanta

  • ​Adam Jaggers, Head of AI at Longview

  • ​Mike Audi, CTO at Watt Data

  • ​Ricardo Medina, CPO at the garage

  • ​Mark Evgenev, Cofounder at Desync.ai

  • ​Jim Stefansic, COO at Omnibuds

  • ​Naveen Jain, stealth

  • ​Kylah Martin, Principal Hardware Engineer at Sitevue

• The New Playbook, PLG in an AI-Native World. A Fireside Chat with Elena Verna. Thursday, May 28th @ 5:30pm.

  • Elena is the GOAT of PLG. If you are a startup founder needing to unlock growth (which should be pretty much every founder lol), this is a must-attend event!

• Nashville Customer Success Community Kickoff Event, Thursday June 11th @ 5:30pm

  • Listen, Nashville has meetups for product and coding, now it needs one for customer success folks! I’m helping ​Ben George (Motive) and Steve Mason (Signal Consulting) get this community started. Join us if you work in CS!

Personal

Had the best weekend ever for my 30th birthday!

To celebrate, I had my friends join for my perfect day, for whichever part they could make.

• We did a workout at my gym Hdub with coffee @ Cafe Babu after

• We had a picnic at One City with poke bowls from Aloha Fish Company and drinks from Sandbar

• Wine & fondue dinner at Chateau West

• Ice cream sundae party at me and Mr Zaps house!!!

Then on my actual birthday, me and Mr Zap went on a super long bike ride from 12 South to Germantown to Wave Country. And then we booked a trip to Budapest and Istanbul in July if anyone has any recommendations!!

I can’t wait to see what my 30s bring!!!

to the moon,

zap⚡